The year of 1986 was more than a dream year for me. It was a year I consolidated my knowledge about art, it was the year I made my way across the ocean, it was the year I made some serious investments and sales and it was the year I made some mistakes, costly mistakes, I might add. Overall, however, the year was good and much better things I expected at this point from my venture into art.
Could 1987 be a better year than 1985 and 1986?
I was better placed financially to make up market investments that guaranteed returns. I was more experienced and more knowledgeable than two or three years earlier. What could go wrong to stop my progress up the ladder of art?
The wrong decisions of 1986 were to chase me in 1987. I missed an opportunity to buy Bernard Buffet’s early work in San Francisco in November 1986. That was a mistake. I lost my punch. I lost my determination to buy top paintings and especially close to modern paintings. Most likely I made mistakes of judgment in purchasing bad art just because of the name or because it was cheap.
In early 1986 I bought 19th cetnury paintings of No consequence. They were run of the mill works, they appealed to no investors, no serious collectors and dealers. I bought them because of the name but they had no art appeal and no financial appeal. I sold them in the end but I just managed to collect my investment back and on two occasiosn I lost money too.
However, the purchase and sale of Hoffman more than made up for the losses and bad investments. A couple of other investments made no money but the investments in Giallina and the Greek statues were supposed to be good investments in my experienced eye and auction knowledge. Too early to say now but what happened will follow later.
In the meantime I bought a few items to decorate the house. Carpets, antique chairs and tables, vases etc. I felt I could invest in our well being with some of the profits I made from paintings. I paid good money for them and I never made any profits out of them. Most of those items bought then are still part of the household but they are sentimental items now, not for sale. I do not want to know about their value as I am pretty sure they have not increased in value that much.
Splashing money on personal likings was good for the family but was it good for the business? Could I invest that money to buy something for profit?
Of course I could, but humans need to live decently too and my family had a right to live in a house with some art to see, some antiques to add spice to our life and the house to be a joy to walk in and live in. I bought tables and vases for the house, I bought a couple of paintings for the house and all in all with a little money I turned the bare house into a small museum of modern and old.
The year 1987 started slowly as always. By February it picked up and gradually things got hectic. I was not prepared for all the events that followed during the year, but, that is what makes art and dealing in art exciting, different to any other investment and rewarding at times. The year was a case of booming up to July and then by October 1987 the bust followed.
How did I fare? How did a weak financially person like me managed to survive the storm of the Stock Exchanges crash in October 1987? To me this was the second face of my art dealing after the initiation of the first three years.
Did I exploit the bust from the crash of October 1987 for myself to go boom?
